Chicago White Sox

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 29, 2018 -> 03:20 PM) Thank you! "Hey wait a minute....I'm a white man and I enjoy stereotype pictures of other races! I am not offended at all" Always got to play that “white man” card. What would you say to the millions of white people who aren’t offended by Notre Dame’s nickname? I’m all for this logo getting scrapped because of its racist undertones, but please stop playing the “white man” card anytime someone isn’t outraged by something. I’m sure there are plenty of other people of varying races & genders who gives two s***s about this logo.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Jan 29, 2018 -> 12:06 PM) Agreed and when the deadline comes around the Sox will have a better idea of how close Eloy is. Plus, it gives the Sox time to evaluate the progress of Robert and Adolfo. I think Adolfo began turning the corner last year and I'm suspecting a breakout from him this year. IMHO, with the amount of young OF talent in the system, Avi's days are numbered on the south side. I agree that Avi’s days are probably numbered. If Delmonico can show his 2017 stint wasn’t a complete fluke, he quickly makes Avi even more expendable. Having said that, I don’t want to completely rule anything out. If Avi suddenly hits 30+ HRs I may just want to keep him around

I called it a year ago, but with the Marlins having three more desirable OFs that they ultimately sold (plus McCutchen & free agent options), the market just wasn’t going to be there for Avi. We got to hope he can add some power and offset the likely BABIP regression. Then he becomes a potential trade chip at the deadline or a guy worth considering locking up long-term.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 29, 2018 -> 10:44 AM) TBH, that is a thankless industry that is going through monumental change. These guys have no job security and maybe no future depending on what direction things go into. Information is so cheap and easy to access now, careers like journalism and related areas are just being decimated. I have been in Sports information in one form or another is something I have been involved in on the side for most of my adult life, but it is a bad place to be trying to make a living now. If I were him, I would be sticking with finance or accounting too. 100% agree. The uncertainty sucks, but some of those jobs require a ton of travel and/or s***ty working hours. Not necessarily the type of life a lot of people are looking for nowadays.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jan 29, 2018 -> 10:17 AM) Well you probably have schoolwork or something and it might not be your 1st priority but it should be near the top. You have a good camera presence , good knowledge and best of all can express that knowledge in a clear precise and unhesitating manner. I could easily see you doing this on the MLB network as the Sox rep just like Dan Hayes did and unfortunatly Phil Rogers still does. You should get an agent if you don't have one. You already have a decent resume with written, in the field work and in front of the camera. If you would like to continue in the sports field and wish to hear more you can message me. I don't have any "ins" in the field or anything but I have a few more suggestions for in front of the camera work that I wouldn't want to put here. I think raBBit has invested heavily in a career path in finance/accounting and wants to see that through. He no doubt could be a Scott Merkin or Dan Hayes type IMO or even more since he has a far deeper understanding of the game, but I don’t think that interests him at the moment.

Anyone who went Friday or Saturday mind elaborating how long the autograph lines were and how many minutes before a session started did they hand out wrist-bands?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 08:25 PM) Fine, technical term we have more potential than any other org has talent. Yankees and Dodgers included. Everyone hits their "potential" and this team is an unstoppable 120 win menace in 2020, counting a free agent or two. 100 wins is the "a normal amount of guys struggle" level. The Yankees had three guys 25 years old and below combine for 18.3 WAR last year. They have a top 5 prospect in Gleybar Torres, a bunch of other top 100 caliber prospects, plus a ton of prospect depth beyond that. Right now we’re simply hoping that Moncada, Jimenez, & Kopech can match the output of Judge, Sanchez, & Servino. Let’s say they can match them, does Rodon, Anderson, Giolito, Lopez, Robert, Hansen, Cease, Rutherford, Burger, Collins offer more upside than Torres, Frazier, Montgomery, Florial, Andujar, Sheffield, Abreu, Adams, etc? I’d say it’s awfully close and the Yankees have far more certainty at this point.

Sox with seven in the top 100. I’ll update with actual rankings shortly but here is how things roughly shaked out: 04. Jimenez 10. Kopech 28. Robert 54. Hansen 61. Cease 92. Dunning 99. Rutherford Was shocked to see Cease ranked that high, although BP is also super high on him. Glad to see Rutherford crack the very end of the list. Also, Burger & Collins both were ranked top ranked 10 prospects at 3B & C respectively. And Gavin Sheets was an honorable mention for 1B. The top 10 looks pretty damn strong.

Well the rumor was we offered A-Rod 10/$190M back in the day. Tanaka is another one we know about. What did Alex Gordon ultimately sign for? I thought there was a rumor we offered more than the Royals, although that might not have been nine figure. I’m pretty sure we made a massive offer to Torii Hunter, although that was probably closer to $80M. I’m sure there are some we don’t know about. I fully expect us to set a new club record next record next offseason and by an insane margin.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 04:10 PM) Exactly. I love that we’re #4 without counting Moncada, Lopez & Giolito. We have the most young talent in baseball and it’s not even close. I mean, I think the Yankees would disagree. They nearly made the World Series last year behind some young stars and still have a top system. Some of guys need to develop first before we can make that kind of claim IMO.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 09:39 AM) Found it. http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/white-sox...tfield-prospect Awesome and thanks for sharing. I’m actually pretty excited about this kid. Cordell mentioned in an Athletic article that he feels most comfortable in CF and if he can actually stick there then we might just have something here.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 09:02 AM) Came across an article earlier where Hahn was talking about Cordell. I guess a few teams have called the Sox to try to deal for him. Do you have a link to the article? Would love to read it.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 09:35 PM) Was switching channels and Fox News had a host yapping about how Trump is not getting the credit for the surge in the economy. Said if this was a Democrat everybody would be celebrating in the streets over the economy. FIFY

Bulls tied for the 7th worst record. If they can trade Niko & Lopez I think they can finish bottom five. A potential top five pick combined with Cousins could actually make this team incredibly dangerous very soon.

No thanks on Broxton. I think the biggest takeaway from what Stearns is doing is that strikeouts haven’t been valued appropriately. Dude just traded three prospects with swing & miss concerns for a high contact hitter. He just signed another high contact hitter to allow him to potentially trade two other ones with swing & miss issues in Santana & Phillips. In isolation a K may be no different than any other out, but once you add context in and group a bunch of these players together it can start impacting your offensive production. Still too early to say what our offensive core will look like when it comes to strikeouts, but I’d rather not add a guy who strikes out 30% of the time this early in the process.

I think it’s time the Sox stop looking as radio as a revenue driver and start seeing it as marketing tool. WLS was a complete joke and I’m still bitter that I had to tune in to that s***ty station if I was in the car and wanted to listen to the Sox. I truly believe the Sox need to find a way to get on AM 1000 even if they lose dollars in the process. Just being on a sports station will result in more people listening to their games and while they won’t benefit from that directly, it should create more interest/excitement in the team which can indirectly have a financial impact. Lots of business have loss leading products and I think it’s time for radio to become such a thing.

QUOTE (WBWSF @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 06:29 AM) Both the Pirates and Marlins are going to have very low payrolls the next few years. Isn't that the same situation the White Sox are going to be in? After this season the White Sox will not have any long term contracts on the books and will probably have a lower payroll than either the Pirates or Marlins. I realize that people don't like to hear this but this White Sox franchise has become a goldmine for JR. Lol..your reading comprehension skills leave a lot to be desired. If you actually read the tweet, you’d realize this is in regard to revenue sharing, which the Sox don’t benefit from like the Marlins & Pirates. But keep ignoring the fact we’re rebuilding in your endless quest to convince us Reinsford is a cheap old f***.

Did any interesting nuggets come out of yesterday’s session?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 06:22 AM) It is for the best. I have flip flopped on this. It is too dangerous now. Even if you are paying full attention to the game , you could be in a tough spot. These days people pay far less attention. Looking at their phone, taking pictures....not only at games but everywhere. Maybe someday someone will come up with some netting you can barely tell is there when you look through it. But the time has come. I agree and support the change, but the netting is definitely a little annoying. I used to love sitting a few rows back behind the dugouts and those seats won’t ever be the same with the netting IMO. Not sure what I’d consider the best seats in the stadium now.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 08:13 PM) That it's in the way of my view of my season tickets and they decided to tell us well after we had to renew. I think this is a fair complaint.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 09:04 AM) Sox don't have a young DH per se, but they have a lot of players (primarily outfielders) that need to rotate through the DH spot in order to get regular at bats. I'm glad it's an open position right now. And I'd be ok with that. I'm super excited to see what Cordell can provide and would love to see more of Willy Garcia (not likely to happen). I'm just worried that Davidson will get the majority of the DH at-bats next year and I just don't believe in him taking that next step.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 08:40 AM) Balta has talked about using our playing time as an asset to find undervalued talent, that was the role the Brewers played. 2016 they picked up tons of near major talent and gave them playing time. This trade was also a great example of why to wait until you are closer to knowing. When brewers had a clear surplus they were able to trade for an elite, cost controlled talent, not just an upgrade. That's what I'd like us to do, use surplus for elite upgrades, not just filling 0 war with 2 war vets. I mean, we’re pretty much going to do the same thing. Look at some of the guys we’ll be trotting out in 2017: 3B: Yolmer Sanchez (2.1 WAR, 534 PA’s) CF: Leury Garcia (1.1 WAR, 326 PA’s) LF: Nicky Delmonico (1.0 WAR, 166 PA’s) 2017 is a perfect opportunity to give all those guys 600 PA’s and see what happens. If they can maintain 2 to 3 WAR production next year, they can fill supporting roles in the rebuild or be moved for additional talent. DH is the only spot I’m not overly excited about how we’re using at the moment.

QUOTE (GermanSock @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 08:20 AM) Good deal for both sides. My math has yelich at a surplus value of 120m and the prospect package being worth around 110m. No haul for the Marlins but also no rip off. Pretty even value deal, the time of 50m plus surplus value deals is over, the teams now know what they do. Might sharing your math here? Always interested in how people calc projected surplus value for prospects. Is it simply based on whether they’re a pitcher or a position player and their current FV score?

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 07:29 AM) I wouldn't think the Sox would be interested in Santana unless he can play a good 1B and they move Abreu. They just can't put a defender like that in the OF this early in the buildup. He might actually be an interesting pickup for Boston. Broxton might be palatable on the buy-low side. As for moving Yolmer, perhaps, but the Sox aren't exactly loaded with Middle Infield prospects (or 3B for that matter). You obviously don’t move Yolmer unless you get value for him. His versatility is useful given some of the uncertainty on the left side of the IF. But I really think we need to keep trading our shorter-term assets for more controllable talent. We have a nice young core starting to take shape and a ton of financial flexibility, but we definitely need more prospect depth IMO. As much as I love what Sanchez brings to the table, we should be able to buy a 2 WAR 3B with just money if not something far better with Machado, Donaldson, & Arenado all coming up for free agency in the coming years. I love what Milwaukee was able to do here in trading prospects for a cost-controlled star, signing a good veteran OF, and setting themselves up for a Santana for SP trade. This only works because they had a solid core in place PLUS prospect depth. I think we’re poised to do something similar in a year or two, but far more effectively because we have what could be a great pitching core (Rodon, Kopech, Giolito, Hansen, Lopez, Dunning, Burdi, etc.) & multiple potential positional stars (Moncada, Jimenez, Robert) in place. If we can maintain a certain level of prospect depth, I think we can be positioned to add a Yelich type talent (along with a couple big free agents) without blowing our entire prospect wad. And that’s important if we’re hoping for “sustained success” as Hahn has alluded to time and again.

QUOTE (GenericUserName @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 12:04 AM) He's the type I would be willing to buy low on because he does have the tools, but you know if you take him that he is a project and not someone who just has small things to work on. The problem for us is diminishing returns. We really don’t have a spot for him in our A ball OF.